Eaglecrest Ski Area to end season a week early on Sunday with concert, but no Slush Cup
Published 9:30 pm Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Eaglecrest Ski Area is ending its season early on Sunday due to poor snow conditions, ending what a board member acknowledged was “a horrible winter” where the upper mountain didn’t open until the end of January and one of two mountaintop lifts was inoperable.
The decision was made Thursday to close the resort this weekend “in case the snow melts out before April 13,” which was the originally scheduled end-of-season date, Eaglecrest General Manager Craig Cimmons said during a board of directors meeting Thursday evening. He said there will be a “Hatchback Hootenanny” at 3 p.m. in the parking lot featuring the local band The Rain Dogs — although there won’t be a Slush Cup that is a traditional last-day activity on the mountain.
“(We’re) just trying make the last day as fun as it can be, especially after a rough snow year and a lot of changes at the mountain,” he said.
Eaglecrest has suffered through uncooperative weather much of the time since opening as scheduled on Dec. 7, but only with the Porcupine lift at the base serving a few short beginner hills operating. Lack of snowfall combined with warm weather and rain that wiped much of the snow that did fall kept the upper mountain from opening until Jan. 29.
In an announcement at its website about the final day of the season, Eaglecrest stated the challenging conditions have continued since then.
“It’s been a winter of threading the needle — dodging rain, chasing cold snaps, and making the most of every flake that fell,” the website stated. “But with our snowpack running on fumes and more warm rain in the forecast, we’re calling it: Eaglecrest’s last day of operations for the 2024-25 season will be Sunday, April 6th.”
The season was further hampered by the loss of the Black Bear chairlift due to mechanical problems. But Mike Satre, the ski area’s board president, told other members during the meeting that financially Eaglecrest had one of the top revenue years in its history due largely to season pass holder sales that occurred during the fall before the season’s prospects were known. However, he warned that means next year’s pass sales are likely to see a dropoff.
“We know that there’s a high risk that the season pass numbers are going to be down next year because of that,” he said. “We historically see that over time every time we have a marginal year (season) pass numbers go down. But then if you have an OK year that next year then you make it up on your day passes.”
Satre said after this year “even an average snow cycle next year would be amazing.” Other board members agreed it was a difficult year, but offered praise to Eaglecrest workers for getting the most from what was available.
“I just want to say despite what a dismal effort from winter, what an amazing skiing it was last weekend, so thanks everybody for making that keep going,” Jonathan Dale said. “And yeah, it’s been a horrible winter, but the skiing has had some phenomenal days up there.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
